Nippon Gas' (TSE:8174) Upcoming Dividend Will Be Larger Than Last Year's

Nippon Gas Co., Ltd. (TSE:8174) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend from last year's comparable payment on the 19th of November to ¥51.50. This makes the dividend yield 3.6%, which is above the industry average.

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Nippon Gas' Payment Could Potentially Have Solid Earnings Coverage

A big dividend yield for a few years doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained. Prior to this announcement, Nippon Gas' dividend made up quite a large proportion of earnings but only 67% of free cash flows. Since the dividend is just paying out cash to shareholders, we care more about the cash payout ratio from which we can see plenty is being left over for reinvestment in the business.

Over the next year, EPS is forecast to expand by 8.2%. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could reach 95%, which is on the higher side, but certainly still feasible.

View our latest analysis for Nippon Gas

Dividend Volatility

While the company has been paying a dividend for a long time, it has cut the dividend at least once in the last 10 years. Since 2015, the dividend has gone from ¥8.67 total annually to ¥103.00. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 28% over that duration. It is great to see strong growth in the dividend payments, but cuts are concerning as it may indicate the payout policy is too ambitious.

Dividend Growth Could Be Constrained

Given that the dividend has been cut in the past, we need to check if earnings are growing and if that might lead to stronger dividends in the future. It's encouraging to see that Nippon Gas has been growing its earnings per share at 11% a year over the past five years. EPS has been growing at a reasonable rate, although with most of the profits being paid out to shareholders, growth prospects could be more limited in the future.

In Summary

Overall, this is probably not a great income stock, even though the dividend is being raised at the moment. In the past, the payments have been unstable, but over the short term the dividend could be reliable, with the company generating enough cash to cover it. We don't think Nippon Gas is a great stock to add to your portfolio if income is your focus.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. For example, we've picked out 1 warning sign for Nippon Gas that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.